Room Tour: A Planning Rejection Leads to a Creative Extension
This ex-local authority house needed a third bedroom, but with rigid restrictions on building up, where could it go?
“The clients live about 50 yards from me, on the same local authority estate,” architect George Bradley says of the owners of this cleverly reconfigured house. He explains it’s a great place to live and that the clients, who’d been in their place for some years, were keen to stay. However, with a growing family, they were running out of space and wanted to create a third bedroom.
The problem? Planning restrictions meant they were unable to extend above the property’s roofline. “Their roof didn’t have a point in it high enough to stand up in,” George explains. “We tried lots of ideas – from raising but also stepping back the roofline so it wasn’t visible from the front.” Everything got rejected. Then the clients brought him “a doodle on a scrap of paper” and they were back in business.
The problem? Planning restrictions meant they were unable to extend above the property’s roofline. “Their roof didn’t have a point in it high enough to stand up in,” George explains. “We tried lots of ideas – from raising but also stepping back the roofline so it wasn’t visible from the front.” Everything got rejected. Then the clients brought him “a doodle on a scrap of paper” and they were back in business.
The L-shaped platform that the bed sits on is where the floor ‘should’ be, in that it was the floor level of the loft space and forms the ceiling of the room below. Ingeniously, it’s been made into this bed platform, meaning there’s plenty of headroom above, and the cutout in the L-shape allows the necessary head height to get into the room.
This grey floor area is ‘borrowed space’ from the floor below, where bespoke storage has been designed to fit beneath it. (The drawing below helps to make this all clearer.)
The bulk of the wood is birch ply treated with water-based matt varnish. George used it throughout the first and top floors. “The house gains lots of warmth from all the plywood,” he says. “Our remit was: ‘If we’re going to add something, we should not just add a room, but also make the house better.’”
This grey floor area is ‘borrowed space’ from the floor below, where bespoke storage has been designed to fit beneath it. (The drawing below helps to make this all clearer.)
The bulk of the wood is birch ply treated with water-based matt varnish. George used it throughout the first and top floors. “The house gains lots of warmth from all the plywood,” he says. “Our remit was: ‘If we’re going to add something, we should not just add a room, but also make the house better.’”
The new room is packed with storage…
…even in the slimmest of spaces. Above the ply radiator cover (left), George added slender shelves the same depth for small toys.
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The exposed pine ceiling joists help to open up the room. “It’s about visually adding space, even though it doesn’t add head height,” George says. “It also brings in texture, creates interesting shadows and breaks away from that idea of ‘white walls, white ceiling’, which could have been overbearing in this space.”
Lighting is tucked between the joists and, along with separate wall lights, gives the room a lovely warm, cosy glow after dark.
Lighting is tucked between the joists and, along with separate wall lights, gives the room a lovely warm, cosy glow after dark.
A new rooflight sits in the building’s flat roof. “We didn’t want to put one in the middle of the space – we like placing them against surfaces, so there’s something to bounce the light off,” George says. As such, the window edge is flush with the wardrobe doors, reflecting more light into the room.
To the right of the wardrobe is a little nook. “At the moment, it’s the perfect height for their son to stand at and play; down the line, it will become a nice daybed.”
To the right of the wardrobe is a little nook. “At the moment, it’s the perfect height for their son to stand at and play; down the line, it will become a nice daybed.”
In fact, the whole room was carefully future-proofed, from the large bed to the internal window, seen from the staircase, here.
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When he’s older, the son will be able to hang a blind here for privacy. While he’s young, though, the parents really liked the idea of being able to stand on the stairs and look in.
George designed the internal window, again, to boost the sense of space. “As we were squeezing in an extra room, we didn’t want to make the house feel cramped,” he says.
He cut a rooflight above the top landing, which throws light all the way down to the ground floor. “The staircase brings in a lot of daylight and we wanted to borrow that for the loft bedroom, hence the internal window.”
George designed the internal window, again, to boost the sense of space. “As we were squeezing in an extra room, we didn’t want to make the house feel cramped,” he says.
He cut a rooflight above the top landing, which throws light all the way down to the ground floor. “The staircase brings in a lot of daylight and we wanted to borrow that for the loft bedroom, hence the internal window.”
This shot shows the internal window (on the right) and the stairs to the next landing down, which turns to take you to the ground floor.
Next to the internal window is the opening to a newly created corridor. It takes you beneath the loft room daybed/nook and leads to the two first floor bedrooms. The corridor benefits from the raised height of the mezzanine bed above. Its ceiling is the long arm of the L-shape raised area seen in the first two photos. Behind the camera is a bathroom.
Next to the internal window is the opening to a newly created corridor. It takes you beneath the loft room daybed/nook and leads to the two first floor bedrooms. The corridor benefits from the raised height of the mezzanine bed above. Its ceiling is the long arm of the L-shape raised area seen in the first two photos. Behind the camera is a bathroom.
This bisection of the top floor and converted loft space shows the loft room’s platform bed, top right. Below this, in white, is one of the two first floor bedrooms, which George also reconfigured.
The area below the lower section of the loft room floor is storage. Cleverly, George designed very generous cupboards, accessible from three sides, to replace the lost loft storage.
The two first floor bedrooms had been generous, rectangular shapes. “We made the one directly below the new loft room shorter but wider. This created a first floor corridor that hadn’t been there before and allowed space for the storage and first floor bedroom access. That was the key to this working,” George says.
The area below the lower section of the loft room floor is storage. Cleverly, George designed very generous cupboards, accessible from three sides, to replace the lost loft storage.
The two first floor bedrooms had been generous, rectangular shapes. “We made the one directly below the new loft room shorter but wider. This created a first floor corridor that hadn’t been there before and allowed space for the storage and first floor bedroom access. That was the key to this working,” George says.
Helped by George’s young daughter, who’s leaning against the internal window, this image makes that corridor clearer.
In the distance, you can just see a chair; this is in the room seen in the drawing and is where the owners’ baby sleeps. The parents’ room is to the right.
In the distance, you can just see a chair; this is in the room seen in the drawing and is where the owners’ baby sleeps. The parents’ room is to the right.
This is another view of the stairs up to the loft. Here you can see the storage George designed. The reduced head height (because the grey floor level in the loft room is what’s above it) has been concealed behind fixed panels, giving the impression that the cupboards are taller than they really are.
This drawing shows how the cupboard sits beneath the dropped floor above.
The clever reconfiguring has given the family the space and storage they need with just a modest change to the exterior. And it’s all thanks to that doodle on a scrap of paper.
Tell us…
What’s your favourite thing about this reconfiguration and the resulting loft room? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
Tell us…
What’s your favourite thing about this reconfiguration and the resulting loft room? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
Who lives here? A young family with two small children
Location North London
Property An early 1980s ex-local authority house
Size Three bedrooms and two bathrooms
Architect George Bradley of Bradley Van Der Straeten
Structural engineer Constant Structural Design
Photos by French+Tye
It was about a year after the owners had resigned themselves to not being able to expand their home when one of them came up with the spark of an idea – a half-height extension.
“I could see it had potential and went off to draw something up,” George says. “It also wasn’t just about extending – they wanted something really special.”
This photo shows the newly created bedroom.